Juneteenth 2020

[Will Ford, III, is a leader in the Body of Christ anointed to bring healing and reconciliation to this nation. We asked him to write today’s devotional as we feel this Juneteenth celebration is happening in a unique time in history. If you are not familiar with Juneteenth, you can read here about how it is “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.”]

“This Juneteenth is fraught with many challenges in our nation. In a time when social distancing has revealed the social distance in our hearts, America is at a unique turning point many would refer to as a hinge of history. Juneteenth is the time when we reflect as a nation on when the slaves in Texas finally learned they were free. That happened  two  years after the slaves were freed by President Lincoln. It’s encouraging today to focus on the triumph of the gospel through a united remnant of Christians, Black and White, that became co-laborers for revival, justice and freedom in our land.  

“Ahmaud Arbery was killed in Brunswick, Georgia, which became a catalyst of what sparked current racial tensions. About a year before this happened, I spoke at a church in the city of Brunswick, pastored by Jaimie Jackson. During worship, I saw a vision of three cords being woven together to form a wick. The wick caught on fire, and I heard the Lord say, “Out of Brunswick will come a burning wick of revival and justice.” I shared the word with the congregation, and the pastor said that Robert Stearns had released a similar word 20 years earlier. I toured the region and learned that this area in Georgia has a rich revival history. It is the place where John and Charles Wesley first came to America on a boat with the Moravians. The Moravians started modern missions through 100-year-long day and night prayer and worship. Some of those missionaries even sold themselves into slavery in order to preach the gospel to slaves. I walked through the woods where the Wesleys prayed and went to the church where they preached. 

“Neighboring close by is Savannah, Georgia, where George Lisle (pronounced Lile), together with his disciple Andrew Bryan, planted the first and oldest African American church in America. Before Lisle moved from Virginia to Georgia, he heard the preaching of George Whitfield and got saved. Lisle became such a profound slave preacher that his master set him free to preach. Lisle was baptized by a white Baptist denomination, and eventually planted a missionary work that became a 4,000-member church in Jamaica. That made him the first ever missionary to leave American soil.  It’s amazing that all of this was birthed in the Brunswick Georgia area through the Moravian burning wick of prayer. 

“It’s been said that “…there’s always been a rude awakening before a spiritual Great Awakening.” God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He has a plan that will bind us together with cords of love that cannot be broken.  I am confident that a united remnant in the church will once again arise to heal a divided nation. This Juneteenth, I’m encouraged because I believe greater freedom is coming to America. Let’s pray that a smoldering wick of revival would be fanned by God into a flame of awakening.” 

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6; ESV)

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:15-21; ESV)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

• Click here to learn about Juneteenth.
• Intercede for the nation, especially those in the Church, to acknowledge and honor the contributions Black Americans have made throughout our history. 
• Pray the prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17:15-21 that we would be one, all people groups together, in Christ.
• Ask the Lord to use the current sentiment of racial injustice to spark that wick of revival and justice in America. 
• Pray that a smoldering wick of revival would be fanned by God into a flame of a Great Awakening.

A prayer you can pray:

Lord, America needs grace to get through this season. These times are difficult to navigate and we need to correct some things historically in order to move forward. We have not acknowledged many of the contributions that Black Americans have made that moved this nation forward and which advanced Your kingdom in the earth from these shores. We need to educate ourselves on the full and complete history of America. Let these tumultuous days be that spark to the wick that causes us to shift into revival and take another step forward toward establishing true and righteous justice. 

Jesus, in John 17 You petitioned the Father to make us one—with You and with one another. We continue to cry out for that today. In fact, we can’t move forward unless You do. God help us, because we don’t know how to do this in the natural. We repent of any participation in racist words and actions that may have fed the beast that led us to this place in history. We need Your supernatural intervention in answer to our humble intercession. We need answers. We need change. We pray that a smoldering wick of revival would be fanned by the Holy Spirit into a flame of a Great Awakening in this land! God, revive us again! Amen.

Today’s decree:

Our current national pain of racial injustice will become a burning wick of revival and justice in America.

Will Ford is Co-Author of “The Dream King:  How The Dream Of Martin Luther King Jr., Is being Fulfilled To Heal Racism In America.” www.dreamstreamco.com/store.